The World Day for Consecrated Life provided me an opportunity to publicly recognize the religious women and men in our Diocese and thank them for their witness to Christ. Religious witness through the charism of their religious family and through living the evangelical counsels. Their ministries – labors – have built up the Church wherever they were assigned, and they have heralded God’s Rule. I can testify to all they have done for the Church in Camden, from the establishment of our Diocese until the present.
On Feb. 1, during a Mass celebrated at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell, I thanked them on behalf of all God’s people. I preached the following at our diocesan celebration. The Scriptures proclaimed at that Mass were Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 and Mark 4:35-41:
World Day for Consecrated Life is celebrated on February 2, which this year falls on a Sunday. Because of Sunday schedules, we moved our celebration to Saturday, February 1. However, the association between what is celebrated on February 2, the offering of the Lord by Mary and Joseph at the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, and the offering of the lives of consecrated religious is recognized at this Mass. Today, we celebrate the offerings of the lives of our jubilarians. Their gifts to God of 70, 60, 50 and 25 years of consecrated life.
Photo Gallery: Mass for Consecrated Life
A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised but delighted to read an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “A Prospective Saint for the Digital Age.” The essay is about a consecrated religious, Sister Clare Crockett, whose cause for canonization has opened. She was a member of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother congregation. Born in Derry, Ireland, she aspired to become a famous actress, and was described as “a beautiful woman blessed with extraordinary charisma.”
In the year 2000, she went with friends to a Holy Week retreat in Spain. She called herself a “wild child.” During that retreat, she had an encounter with the crucified Christ who changed her life. She who had little interest in religion, was not practicing the faith, and was involved in lots of drinking and partying, entered the convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, and eventually was professed and sent on mission. In 2016, she was teaching music in Playa Prieta, Ecuador, when an earthquake destroyed the school building and took her life and the lives of five young candidates to the community.
The Wall Street Journal article reported on numerous testimonies about her arriving from all over the world, [and] about her influence on former students and others with whom she had contact, especially from young people. Testimonies such as helping students to fight off evil; preventing others from suicide; bringing young people back to the Church. Her smiling young face and her enthusiasm for youth has caught attention, especially of young people. Inspiring them.
The ceremony opening the cause of her beatification was reported in that essay in the Journal. The author of the essay was fascinated with the offering of her life – this young vivacious, attractive, talented religious. “All or nothing,” was the motto of Sister Clare’s life. In giving and offering of her life to God, she found satisfaction and human fulfillment, and attracted others, especially young people. Her fellow sisters were astonished by her dedication to the life and her selflessness. Widespread devotion to her has attracted a mass audience of young people.
We celebrate the offering of the lives of our consecrated religious. Their freely given gift of themselves to God. We heard about Abraham from the author of the letter of the Hebrews. Abraham’s decision to leave home; to seek the promised land; to trust in God. His faith, defined in the reading of Hebrews: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” With trust and faith like Abraham’s, our jubilarians made their decision to leave former lives and seek Christ the Lord through the evangelical counsels and through the charism of their community.
Over the years in which the jubilarians have lived the consecrated life, I am sure they have called on Jesus to calm the storms – personal, societal, ecclesial and congregational. Never forget the Lord is with you. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; He has come to his people,” in good times and in stormy times. He has come to his people through consecrated religious, through their fidelity to Him, as they lived the evangelical counsels and the charism of your community.
The world is fascinated by the offering of self, which can only be understood by faith.
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, may each of our jubilarians and all consecrated religious be pilgrims of hope in a world that desperately needs you and your witness. The Jubilee of Consecrated Life will take place in Rome on October 8 and 9 with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope, on the way of peace.” I suggest in honor of their jubilees that their communities send them to Rome for the Jubilee of Consecrated Life.
Congratulations! Many Thanks, Jubilarians! God Bless.
Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan, D.D.
Bishop of Camden
Jubilarian Anniversaries
25 Years
Sister Dionisia Muthoni Hjeru, SMI
Reverend Shaji Muttathottil, VC
Reverend John Buckthese Chinnappan, OCD
50 Years
Sister Jadwiga Cierpinska, LSIC
60 Years
Sister Marie Hortstmann, IHM
Sister Maria Yolanda Odron, LSIC
Sister M. Reginald Stroup, DM
Reverend Paul Fitzpatrick, SM
70 Years
Sister Joann Burzichelli, RSM
Sister Philomena Nowicka, LSIC
Sister Marjorie Smith, RSM